David Wagner has shared his assessment of his Norwich City side’s 4-0 defeat to Leeds United last night.
After a cagey 0-0 draw at Carrow Road, the Canaries could barely lay a glove on Leeds last night as the hosts completely romped to a Wembley final against one of Southampton or West Brom.
Before the match, Wagner insisted his team were not fearful of the challenge of going to Elland Road and winning after failing to secure themselves an advantage in the first leg.
Ultimately, though, Norwich folded under a raucous atmosphere and were unable to recover from Ilia Gruev’s incredible early free-kick which set Leeds on their way.
Goals from Joel Piroe and Georginio Rutter then sent the Whites into an unassailable 3-0 half-time lead, which was added to by Crysencio Summerville’s easy second half strike.
Wagner shares ‘truth’ about Leeds after Norwich collapse
In his press conference last week, Farke spoke about the advantage of being at home in the second leg, and Leeds certainly took advantage of that.
Farke was not afraid to go slightly more defensive at Carrow Road to ensure Leeds were not trailing heading into last night’s match. Based on how it unfolded, that turned into the right decision.
Backed by the crowd, Leeds were in the faces of Norwich throughout the whole 90 minutes and the away side simply couldn’t deal with it. That is shown by the fact they had just one shot on target, which brought a ‘world class’ save from Illan Meslier.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Wagner has admitted his side were simply unable to handle the occasion but believes the ‘truth’ was that Leeds were ‘very good’.
He said: “In the duels we were second best as well. You have to stay in the game as long as you can when you play a side like Leeds, and then you can get something out of the game.
“But we’ve done more or less exactly the opposite – conceding early and conceding three in one half, which made it more or less impossible to turn around.
“You never know at the end of the day what occasions like this can do to individuals. Even if it doesn’t count in this game I would like to thank every player, every staff member for the last 10 months for the effort which they brought on the pitch.
“But in this game, and this is the truth, a big one, a huge one, a great occasion, we were not able to come to our level unfortunately. This is one of the reasons, but the other reason is we have to be say the truth as well, Leeds were very good.”
Norwich pay for subdued first-half display
Heading into Sunday’s first leg, EFL pundit Adrian Clarke was of the opinion that Norwich simply had to take a lead into last night’s encounter at Elland Road.
However, Norwich were dreadful at Carrow Road and managed just one shot on target, a performance which certainly played into the hands of Leeds.
Going into the return fixture all square, Leeds had all the momentum behind them to come out and start quick, which is exactly what they did.
The early goal set Leeds on their way and from that point onwards, Norwich simply could not get near them. Who knows if it would’ve been a different story had they taken a first leg advantage.